Entertainment For Lively Minds
What Makes A Good DJ? Name The Names!
Posted by Richard Raftery on 18 December 2008 - 6:04pm.
OK, so it is easy to name and shame the crap ones. They are to be found everywhere, plying their trade with undimmed enthusiasm and, generally speaking, deeply in love with their own well-honed personalities.
So, what makes a good DJ and where are they to be found? For starters we could quibble over what exactly is a DJ. Mike Harding for example, presents a very listenable folk music programme on Radio 2. His enthusiam and in-depth knowledge of his subject make him always interesting. He is on the radio. He plays music. Therefore we can assume him to be a DJ. He'll do for starters. Next!
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Bob Harris
To some he will always be the tank top wearing, Eagles-loving, soft-spoken longhair of OGWT fame who didn't 'get' Roxy Music and The New York Dolls.
To me, he is one of the true greats of British broadcasting, a man who has dedicated his entire adult life to sharing the music he loves with a radio audience, be it on a national station like Radio 2 or a small local station like GLR.
The fans of punk who derided him should have respected him - all he ever did was express his own opinion, and he did not pretend to like music simply because it was fashionable to do so. He plowed his own musical furrow regardless of its 'street cred', which to my way of thinking is actually quite a punk thing to do! And can I just say at this point that he really likes 'New Rose' by The Damned...
I had the enormous pleasure of helping out on his radio shows during the mid-1990s, and I can honestly say that he is one of the most genuine and warm-hearted people I've ever had the privilege to meet. His enthusiasm for music is as great as ever, and his appetite for discovering new bands would put most teenagers to shame.
I don't like everything he plays on his radio shows, but that really isn't the point. I know that if I keep listening, he will introduce a wonderful piece of music to me that I've never heard before, all with that wonderfully engaging, gentle enthusiasm.
Agreed ...
... don't listen to him much, but have always admired his integrity. Roger Scott was always a good listen many moons ago.
Funny you should mention Roger Scott...
as Bob Harris is an enormous admirer of his radio shows.
Top Two
Roger Scott was brilliant, Bob is a national treasure, think he should have a better slot on a Saturday evening 10-1 like he used to have I think. I do listen to him again sometimes the following day, but Bob is best heard at nightime with the drink of your choice.
Mr Harris
As with Patrick, I don't like everything Bob plays, but he is the ONLY DJ we make a point of listening to. We tune in for his Thursday night country prog and quite often drift off in the early hours of Sunday with his overnight show.
We wouldn't be James McMurtry fans if we hadn't heard Bob play his stuff, but he was the last artist of many that Bob has introduced us to.
There used to be some bloke called Hepworth who had a decent show on the old BBC Greater London Radio. We bought a few people like Mary Chapin Carpenter after first being introduced to the music by him.
I also won the Rock n Roll A level competition that he used to run, a couple of times.
Verity Sharp
and Fiona Talkington on Radio 3's Late Junction are brilliant. Knowledgable, soothing, gently witty and guaranteed to introduce me to a new kind of music I've never heard before every time.
Perfect
Their enthusiasm's infectious, and has put me on to whole new musical vistas. Heck, even my first exposure to Godspeed! You Black Emperor was on one of their Late Junctions!
passion
My take... a good DJ has such passion for the music that they play, that you listen to the show regardless of your own musical tastes. There are not too many of them out there. Gideon Coe, Stuart Macconie (Freak Zone)... I used to love Mike Sweeney on Piccadilly Radio in Manchester for his sixties show (late eighties was when I was a listener). He absolutely cared about the music he played and it was always a pleasure to listen to.
Martin collins
Before he sold his soul to satan aka capital
Steve Lamacq
His trainspotterish enthusiasm for all things indie, his memory and knowledge of the bands and the music, his genuine interest in listeners' musical tastes and anecdotes... the bloke's teatime show on 6Music is one of the station's greatest delights. An excellent DJ.
If it's passion you want
nobody can beat David "Ram Jam" Rodigan!
Simon Mayo is a particular favourite.
One of the few to have crossed over from Radio One to great effect. His double act with Mark Kermode (who also deserves a Word feature) on a Friday afternoon is essential listening.
I miss the Smashy and Nicey-type DJs
Rosko, DLT... there was something so outlandishly fake about that crew that they perfectly complemented the outlandish fakery of pure pop itself.
I'm quite serious. (Add "-ly disturbed" to the end of that sentence if you prefer.)
Radio 1 from that era...
was how I got to love music, so I have fond memories of it too. Particularly 'Round Table', the new releases review show... I used to love listening to that.
DLT? A genius, if only for 'Quack quack OOPS'. I stood on his foot at a party once... if looks could kill...
Missed Opportunity
C'mon Patrick that close and you didn't give him a Right -hander. shame on you
A right hander?
I hope you mean what I hope you mean.......
(Sorry, someone has been talking about Shandy and the word associated with your comments.)
That is precisely what
- assuming we are not reduced to a smoking wasteland full of mutant zombies or simply flooded out by then - today's kids will be saying about Jo Whiley, Fearne'n'Reggie, Nihal, Sara Cox and co in 20-odd years time, don't you think?
Well, yes and no
With the new Wunnerfuls you can at least sense a faint glimmer of a real human being behind the voice. But with Kid Jensen, Fluff, Rosko... they were not of this earth. And I miss 'em.
Rosko
Rosko was a pro. He was a big personality DJ but I don't think he saw himself as being more important than the music.
Whatever happened to
GLR's Mary Costello?
Haven't a clue...
... us non Londoners can only wonder about the way that people seem to get all misty eyed about GLR. Was it really that good?
Good DJ's though... Best ones combine knowledge, enthusiasm and wit (but not always equally), so I'd say out of the crop just now I especially like...
1) Radcliffe
2) Maconie
3) Adam and Joe (their 6music show is a joy)
4) Gideon Coe
5) Rob Da Bank (well I like him!)
6) Bob Dylan
7) Guy Garvey
8) Verity Sharpe and Fiona Talkington (good call earlier poster)
Awfully bloke heavy, but I haven't really heard Annie Mac, I cant abide Jo Wiley or Sarah Kennedy or any of the crop on 6music who aren't Lauren Laverne (and really I don't so much like her as not dislike her). I'm alseep when Anne Nightingale and Mary Anne Hobbs are on...
I mostly listen to Radio 4 anyway. They don't really do DJs...
GLR really was that good
It was what I would expect a Word radio station to be. Reasonable summary on it here -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/oct/24/radio
And Chris Evans really was very good on GLR.
Seconded
GLR was an excellent mix of music and talk. Whatever the BBC calls the successor is tedious beyond belief and hasn't been listened to in this house since a couple of weeks after the demise of GLR.
Johnny Walker
For years he was my only source of "Roots" music on the radio, by which I guess I mean country and/or folk based "rock". His 2 or 3 hour extravaganza in R1 in the 70s (80s?) was a source of wonder, not actually duplicated by his similar R2 slot more recently. He has become a bit auto-pilot these days, but thanks, Johnny, nonetheless. I particularly remember a RT session at the time of Daring Adventures.
Lets also have a quiet period of reflective silence.....
....for the boy Kershaw, wishing him a better 2009
Agreed
I have just read the Mick Wall Peel biog and Kershaw comes across as a good sort. Hope 2009 is a good one for him.
Anyone mentioned...
...Mark Lamarr?
I listen to Danny Baker in spite of the music he plays, so I suppose that makes him a good DJ.
GLR
http://www.duman6.gen.tr/izle.php?video=pL3TasEUudQ